So everything came back today, the Torque 12 and the Torque 30. Excellent service from Penn as usual. They didn't have the versa gears to drop the ratio on them available, which was a bit of a bummer. I felt I really need to drop the ratio of these reels. It actually brings to me a question as to why these are not available, especially the smaller sized reels, in a 2:1 ratio. It comes in the dual speeds. For the small reels, 12,15,25,30's, these reels are really just too fast for most fishing I see. It is not even an issue of power. Even a stripper will just rip off the hook with a 6:1 ratio spin.

Tony may chime in here, but at least up until recently, the Versa-Gears were still available at the factory individually, though the "sets" were gone.Also, Ken's custom Reels in Oceanside, CA had several "sets" for sale when I was there a week ago.

pin rate, are you surface casting plugs for Porgies? I would fish for them straight down. T

There is a number of reasons to cast out, amoung which is to get a better angle when the fish hits, which produces a softer recoil. Also it allows me to search the area. You can drop down and move out as you probe and in a circle, looking for a sweet spot.

But mostly it is castiong over the other lines with control on a crowded boat and what when you end up witha 25 inch fluke or a 23 inch seabass or a 35 inch blue or a 30 inch striper, 25 inch cods, 39 inch triggers, etc all of which I have caught when progy fishing. Then I want that great smoothly adjusting star drag

I understand exactly what mrbrklyn is conveying with the gear ratio. Fish for porgies aka scup with a high gear ratio reel and you will drop a lot of fish. An expert scup fisherman with a surfmaster, having no wasted movement, knowing how to hook bring in 30% more double headers than the normal fisherman is just a thing of beauty. I won't fish the high gear ratio reels for porgies. You can however use one of the high gear ratio reels with a more modern design and better drag if you don't fill the reel to capacity with line thus slowing it down.

I sold my fathom 40 stardrag some years ago and got me a Baja Special, two different beasts I know but felt in love inmediatly with the Baja Special for many reasons over the fathom, yes I know Baja is way heavier in weight than the fathom but I dont made hundreds of cast with it, I also built me a T4n1 kits 113hxn which is really light and thin and kept the ratio of 3.25:1 with stock steel main gear for powa, excellent reel for inshore, offshore and even trolling short lines and hight drags